Beautiful Wasteland

Rating: 7/10 (18 May 2015)

Never being a horror fan, I'm always hesitant on watching that genre of filmmaking. It's not because I don't think they make for good cinema, they certainly do. But in most horror films that I have seen, they don't give me much more than a few scares and jumps. But 28 Days Later is a much different story. It's ability to balance the frightening movements of zombies with the beautiful imagery of a world without people. It's the scenes with simple and quiet shots of wastelands that haunt me more than the zombies themselves.
We begin with seeing experiments on apes, because of course humans cant be at fault for the virus. But in reality they are. It was an accidental spread from humans. As creepy as the opening scene was, I didn't find it to be paid off in any way throughout the film. I just felt like that could have been explained in a voice-over or monologue. No matter, we then find our lead character, Jim, played by the brilliant Cillian Murphy. He of course is clueless about the outbreak as he has been in a coma for 28 days. The initial shots of him walking through Cambridge with no one to be seen were both gorgeous and haunting. Much like in I Am Legend, we all wonder, what the hell would we do if we had the whole city to ourselves? Jim comes across Serena and another man who end up saving his life. But we soon learn the details of the virus and how quickly it infects people. After the other guy dies, Jim and Serena are forced to keep moving. The two initially despise one another and don't want anything to do with each other, but as they meet Frank and Hannah, their minds change. In situations like this, it seems as though everyone has a breaking point. As strong as you think you are by yourself, you always need help, and the 4 of them learned that along the way.
The joy of the shopping scene was one of the highlights of the movie for me, as it was the only scene where all of our leads were genuinely happy. It's a simple smile that you remember from scenes like this. As chaos unfolds and each character comes into their own, choices had to be made. I think Jim's character arc was great as the more he grew adapt to the situation, the more he acted like the infected. Which by the way, Danny Boyle did a great job at imagining new types of zombies. They move fast and frantically instead of the stupidity of slowly walking. His filming of them was also fascinating. There weren't many moments if at all that he surprised us with their appearance. Often, he would show them first to us, before the characters would see them. In terms of the ending, well I could tell that the directors had different intentions, and hearing about the alternate endings, I think I would have preferred one of those to the one we got. It's a different approach to the horror and jump scare moments. So in all, 28 Days Later is a refreshing take on the horror and zombie genre. It's still not my cup of tea, but I can respect it's greatness.
+Cillian's arc
+New types of zombies
+Boyle's style
+Beautiful quiet moments
-Opening didn't pay off
-Ending felt contrived
7.6/10